Islam’s war doctrines ignored

At the recent inaugural conference for the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), presenter LTC Joseph Myers made an interesting point that deserves further elaboration: that, though military studies have traditionally valued and absorbed the texts of classical war doctrine—such as Clausewitz’s On War, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, even the exploits of Alexander the Great as recorded in Arrian and Plutarch—Islamic war doctrine, which is just as if not more textually grounded, is totally ignored.

Raymond Ibrahim is a scholar and writer of the Middle East and Islam, and author of The Al-Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007). He was educated at California State University, Fresno (BA and MA in History) and has done graduate work at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies of Georgetown University. His op-eds, essays, translations, and al-Qaeda-related analyses have appeared in various publications and syndications (including the Chronicle of Higher Education, Los Angeles Times, New York Times Syndicate, United Press International, Washington Times, Financial Times, National Review, Washington Post, The Jewish Press, Assyrian International News Agency, as well as in international publications). He has been interviewed on a number of radio and TV shows across the political spectrum (including Fox News and NPR), and has lectured at several universities as well as governmental agencies, such as the U.S. State Department. He works at the Near East section of the African and Middle Eastern division of the Library of Congress, where he discovered many of the never-before-translated Arabic texts that make up the bulk of The Al-Qaeda Reader.

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The best thing anyone can do to understand this religion is to read the Koran for themselves. Also, read about the history on the spread of Islam throughout India alone give you a pretty fair picture of Islamic conquests!

The world famous historian, Will Durant has written in his ‘Story of Civilization’ that “the Mohammedan conquest of India was probably the bloodiest story in history”.

India, before the advent of Islamic imperialism, was not exactly a zone of complete tranquility and peace like many other parts of the world. There were plenty of wars fought by Hindu princes. Despite all these wars, the Hindus had observed some time-honored conventions sanctioned by the Sastras. The Brahmins and the Bhikshus were never molested. The cows were never killed. The temples were never touched. The chastity of women was never violated. The non-combatants were never killed or captured. A human habitation was never attacked unless it was a fort. The civil population was never plundered. War booty was an unknown item in the calculations of conquerors. The martial classes, who clashed, mostly in open spaces, had a code of honor. Sacrifice of honor for victory or material gain was deemed as worse than death.

Islamic imperialism came with a different code – the Sunnah of the Prophet. It required its warriors to fall upon the helpless civil population after a decisive victory had been won on the battlefield. It required them to sack and burn down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting or had fled. The cows, the Brahmins, and the Bhikshus invited their special attention in mass murders of non-combatants. The temples and monasteries were their special targets in an orgy of pillage and arson. Those whom they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves. The magnitude of the booty looted even from the bodies of the dead, was a measure of the success of a military mission. And they did all this as mujahids (holy warriors) and ghazls (kafir-killers) in the service of Allah and his Last Prophet.

It is estimated that the Islamic conquest and rule in India may have resulted in killing of an estimated 50-80 million Hindus and other indigenous religion people.

The British rulers, on the other hand, ruled India mostly following a strategy of economic exploitation, which was mainly aimed at producing revenues for funneling to Britain. This was achieved by imposing high taxes on the farmers and often forcing the latter into cultivating cash-crops (jute, cotton, tea, oil seeds) useful for the Industries in Britain but not for the Indian farmers. This had caused great hardship and suffering to the Indian farmers including famines. Religious persecution, as unleashed by the Portuguese (in Goa) and the Islamic rulers, was never a part of the British rule.

Although there was an clandestine and unofficial complicity to Evangelical Missionary activities, including clandestine effort to convert the Indian soldiers. Yet there is no record of mass destruction of mosques, temples or monasteries by the British rulers or mass killing of the native people for their religions or for not converting to Christianity. Neither did the British rulers ever allowed the Hindus or the Muslims to destroy either Muslim mosques or the Hindu temples throughout the great part of their rule in India.[source India: Putting the Fallouts of the Islamic Invasion and British Occupation in Perspective by Alamgir Hussain 26/05/2005]

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You could also read about people who have been saved out of this anti-Christ religion that denies the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the God of the Bible. The Islamic Allah is NOT the same God from the Judeo/Christian bible. Even the Koran states…

“005.051 O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.”

For some of these brothers and sisters it is important that the area where they live now, or where they originally come from, is not too closely identified to ensure either their own safety or that of their families. Others do not have as great safety concerns and a country name is given. Many of these believers from Muslim background are “online” and welcome your response. […] Most of the testimonies were written by former orthodox and practicing Muslims, some came from a nominal or sectarian Muslim background.

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For those of you who are not Christian and therefore would like some information about Islam from a secular view point, a site worth going to is called FAITH FREEDOM. This site includes ex-Muslims who share the reasons why they came out of their religion and are now considered apostates. They are NOT Christians, in fact, this is what they have to say when asked the following question…

My criticism applies to all religions. The very concept of God sending messengers to be known and worshipped is absurd. All those who come pretending to bring a message from an invisible god that only they can see are charlatans and their claims are bogus. I do believe in a higher Reality and a Single Principle underlying the creation, but not in an egotistic self-centered petulant deity as depicted by these self-appointed prophets.

They believe in human rights above all things.

Another one is called ISLAM WATCH and they too are Islamic Apostates who…

have left Islam out of our own conviction when we discovered that the religion of Islam is not a religion at all. Most of us had taken a prolong period of time to study, evaluate, reflect and contemplate on this religion of our birth. Having scrutinized this religion with meticulous attention, we concluded that Islam is not at all a religion of peace as touted by many smooth-talking, self-serving Islamists and the Islamic apologists. The core of Islam, that is, the Qur’an, Hadis and Sharia are filled with unbound hatred for the unbelievers, unbelievably intolerant and exceptionally cruel and merciless to those who dare to deviate an iota from its doctrine. We discovered that Islam is beyond alteration, because Muslims who attempt to modernize and reform its unremitting bigotry, mindless rituals and its barbaric and draconian punitive measures are targeted for annihilation. Our verdict was that the only way to escape from the tyranny of Islam is to leave it for good. That is why we discarded Islam from our lives-to be free, to enjoy a normal, pleasant and humane life, in complete harmony with all people on earth irrespective of their religion, race or creed.